Frank Hodgkinson: The Sepik Diary

A journey up New Guinea’s Sepik River made more vivid through word and image

This is the third in a series of four posts about process.

‘Further downstream on the left bank, houses animated on stilts dance and clutter around a long house of the village at Binn. A woman stand-paddles a pirogue, a family travels and an egret rides downstream on a stick.’

The artistic process sometimes begins with curiosity and a willingness to investigate and educate. In March 1977, Australian artist Frank Hodgkinson (1919-2001) embarked on a remarkable 500-mile dugout canoe trip up the Sepik River in New Guinea, that documented in word and image. What he produced was a blend of confessional diary, sketchbook and scientific journal. It's filled with his vivid prose and bold pen and wash sketches of tribal art, carvings, masks, spirit houses, local floral and fauna, and most importantly, portraits of the Sepik River people. His handwritten notations are found in and around the drawings. The Sepik Diary is about Hodgkinson’s personal journey, as well an anthropological study of a voyage of cultural significance. 

The image captions are taken from his notes.

‘Carved and painted the head lies in a basket bristling with feathers, a costume mask to celebrate a killing, worn around the waist to bustle on the backside, its projection of feathers swings as a tail.’

‘He follows me to an effigy, a grass-skirted costume, hanging from a carved hook. This is his ceremonial costume. He beckoned another old chap to release the hooked chord as he clamps a horn whistle between his long, red betel-nut stained teeth, and positions himself underneath the grass and basket-weave costume. His stiff, jerky dance steps and (unmusical?) blasts on the whistle are comical. We suppress our laughter yet this child-like act may be intended as light relief and otherwise serious, even bloodletting ceremony.’

‘It is the valley of the artists. This is the finest Haus Tambaran in the Septik basin. Open to the back and sides, it is no less dark inside. Several fires on the clay floor, each of four logs meeting at burning point smoke out the mosquitoes, but obscure carvings, haphazardly jammed together.’

At the time of his journey, the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea was an untamed, so-called primitive land that beckoned to be explored. Imagine navigating this strange and powerful river. As the jungle thickens and twilight descends, you can almost hear the distant rhythmic pulse of tribal drums. Hodgkinson evokes the exotic in his vivid prose. He made watercolors of huts on stilts, crocodiles along the muddy banks and more.

Hodgkinson experienced firsthand the ancient traditions of a culture at risk of vanishing, observing the beauty and complexity of each village’s distinct artistic styles and rituals. 

He shared his own profound attraction, on a primal level, to their processes and practices, from the careful carving of intricate wooden masks and canoes to the vibrant body painting of the Sepik people. Each aspect is laden with meaning, history and an intimate connection to the natural world. He was received warmly as he drew local artisans engaged in making their own artful creations.

‘…a public toilet projects from the waterfront at Angoram. The catwalk is not tied - an urgent call could involve a tangle in black, seeping mud with a crocodile.’

‘The building (is) entirely traditional, and in good repair. Most display some decoration around the entrances. The largest with elaborately carved steps and painted gable. I sketch, believing it to be the ceremonial house.’

‘A lurking crocodile is imaged in river weed.’

Hodgkinson’s explorations did not end there; he continued his artistic odyssey through sacred Aboriginal sites in his native Australia, making annual journeys to the Northern Territory until 1987, when he spent extensive time in the stunning landscapes of Kakadu National Park and Arnhem Land. He immersed himself in the region’s rich legends, rituals, art forms, geological wonders, natural history, and existential inquiries, culminating in the creation of another published journal, called Kakadu and the Arnhem Landers.

In 1982 Hodgkinson dedicated the diary to the people of the Sepik. It reads: “The river folk know that art and life are inseparable, that beauty is experienced before it is conceptualized.”

Frank Hodgkinson brought an artist’s perspective to a culture that was distinctly different from Western aesthetic sensibilities. He was known primarily as an abstract expressionist painter, yet his insightful observations of primal peoples, landscapes and traditions provided a visually compelling narrative that informed his work. The Sepik Diary stands as a poignant and powerful testament from a curious and empathetic artist on a journey of self-discovery.

Artifacts on the walls of Hodgkinson’s studio

Drawings and text © Estate of Frank Hodgkinson

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Read what I wrote about the processes of artists Robert Weaver and Tomio Nitto.